Welcome to the official CQUniversity Student Blog – CQUniLife. This blog follows the experiences of a diverse group of CQUniversity students from different countries, studying various programs and at various campuses throughout Australia.

Alumni Relations Wrap 2018

It’s been another wonderful year for CQUniversity alumni. Thousands of graduates have remained connected by giving back, updating details, attending events and helping students.

You can watch our university highlights in the CQUniversity 2018 Review video or read about the highlights for alumni below. We hope you enjoy the news, and as always, would be delighted to hear any feedback on your 2018 alumni experience or any ideas for future programs.

Great rankings news

Your University’s learning and teaching excellence and graduate outcomes have been recognised in multiple national and international rankings.

These pleasing results are a testament to the outstanding quality of CQUniversity graduates, some of whom are highlighted on our alumni profile site.

Staying connected and sharing experiences

Increasing numbers of alumni are reaching out to engage with the CQUni, for their own professional and personal development and to help students. Over 2 900 alumni across the world participated in University activities in 2018 – attending events, providing mentoring, volunteering, guest speaking and more.

Our mentoring program – CQUni Career Connection – remained popular for both alumni and students with 260 alumni mentors in the program.

Over 5 700 alumni updated their details to remain connected, ensuring they heard about news, opportunities and events. 40 events were promoted to alumni – 25 in Australia and 15 internationally (event invitations are sent based on location details – have yours changed? Update your details online to receive relevant communications). Six new discipline-specific newsletters were introduced, giving graduates targeted information, and bringing our total number of discipline and region-specific newsletters to 13.

What alumni want

In 2018 we surveyed graduates to find out what you want from CQUni Alumni programs and services. Over 1 700 graduates responded. We’re still analysing results and interpreting how these will impact future programs, but here’s an early snapshot of what you told us:

79% felt their studies made a positive contribution to their life.

50% of alumni are open to being involved

Top 3 preferred methods of volunteering are:

Mentoring a student/new graduate (51%)

Sharing experience or expertise (48%)

Serving on a University committee/advisory group (35%)

The top three motivations to participate are to:

Connect/network with others with similar interests

Stay updated with the latest research/trends

Interested in further study

Alumni said the biggest barriers to participation are:

Location

Not aware of available activities

Too busy – no time

What do these findings mean?

The survey findings impact the programs we offer you. It means we will continue to offer volunteering options that focus on student-impact, can be completed anywhere, and require varying levels of time commitment.

Like CQUni Career Connect – our online mentoring platform. Consultations are completed online, meaning you can mentor students no matter your location (and alumni can be mentored by fellow alumni too).

Or the 30 Minutes a Month program – a volunteering program that asks graduates to complete small tasks each month – again, it can be completed regardless of location, activities support current students, and it takes a small amount of time each month. The 2018 program has now finished but will be back in 2019.

You can find out more about the programs available to you on our website. If there are any new programs you’d like to see, or if you’d like to suggest improvements, please contact us – we’re always excited to receive ideas and feedback.

2018 Annual Appeal success

Thanks to the generosity of donors, more than 50 life-changing scholarships and emergency grants will be available in 2019.

The 2018 CQUniCares Annual Appeal was supported by 176 donors (including 79 alumni) who raised $217 211 to support more than 50 students in 2019.

The money raised means 25 students will receive CQUni Cares Appeal Scholarships in 2019. These scholarships will provide support to students in financial pressure.

Additionally, at least another 25 CQUniCares emergency grants will be available to students facing unexpected financial hardship as a result of an emergency or unforeseen situation – be it medical, financial, a natural-disaster or another emergency. The purpose of the grants is to support students to continue their studies in times of crisis.

The support provided by these scholarships and emergency grants is life-changing. In the short-term, it allows students to continue their education with CQUniversity. In the long-term, the recipients’ families and entire communities will benefit from our graduates’ passion, skills and knowledge.